SEABISCUIT: THE MAKING OF THE MOVIE

SEABISCUIT - The Making of the Movie

A behind-the-scenes look at the production of the major motion picture, "SEABISCIUT"; the series of events that culminated in the SEABISCIUT book and movie are nearly as improbable as the story Laura Hillenbrand (author) tells of the trials endured by the 1938 Horse of the Year and the people surrounding him. Within a period of fourteen days in August of 1998, Hillenbrand went from being a horse racing fan and freelance writer to signing a book deal with Random House and a movie contract with Universal.

Since the book's release on March 6, 2001, it has taken hold of readers, racing fans and the "New York Times Best Seller List". "SEABISCIUT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND", spent 30 weeks at No. 1 on the "Times'" list and 100 weeks in the top 25! Since the release of Hillenbrand's book the SEABISCUIT story has gone far beyond the reach of a typical "racing book." Industry professionals and amateurs alike embraced it immediately...but so did the mainstream media and regular readers.

Everyone's always loved stories about the underdog, especially sports stories and this is a unique version of the underdog story in that the main four characters are all underdogs: SEABISCUIT, his owner Charles Howard, trainer Tom Smith, and jockey Red Pollard. Tobey Maguire was cast as Pollard, Jeff Bridges stepped into Howard's shoes and Chris Cooper was tapped to be Smith... jockey GARY STEVENS even earned a role as George Woolf, SEABISCUIT'S jockey when Pollard was injured.

By every account, the movie's racing scenes are breathtaking and every effort was made (and it shows) to ensure its believability. Retired Hall of Fame jockey, CHRIS McCARRON tackled the challenge of ensuring the movie's riding scenes appeared realistic and a key element to the film's success was to put the audience in the horse race unlike any movie had done before. After watching this documentary, the movie-goer can truly appreciate the mechanics involved with devising a special high-tech wheeled platform with a huge crane attached to record all the racing scenes and to put the patron as close to the action as never before.

Every facet involved with putting out the final product... the "SEABISCUIT" movie is unveiled in this fascinating documentary: find out how many horses were cast to play SEABISCIUT and why the need for so many of them; how SEABISCUIT got his name; what main four race tracks were chosen for filming; hear from the costume designer herself on the enormity of the challenge it was to capture people as they were in all walks of life in this epic time piece of grand proportion...to clothe more than 11,000 movie extras and how much time-staking attention to detail was put into each and every single costume that appeared; how did it come about that GARY STEVENS was chosen to play the George Woolfe role; see what Toby Maguire did to prepare and to be fit for his role as Red Pollard...all this and much much more will be revealed.

The high quality of the production goes far beyond top-notch racing scenes; from the outset, the horse racing industry's cooperation was invaluable to making the film a reality. The fact that the Thoroughbred industry embraced the story and worked with the film team wholeheartedly made it extraordinarily easy to produce the movie but the movie's impact on racing may also be immense.

There's a curiosity out there...most people really don't understand racing...with the movie, "SEABISCUIT", a fresh new interest in racing may unfold. Hopefully tracks will be prepared to accommodate the new fans. "SEABISCUIT" is just what the racing industry needed to turn the light on and to be re-discovered.

Don't miss this fabulously produced and much anticipated documentary that takes the viewer on an odyssey back to the golden years of racing featuring interviews with the director and screenwriter Gary Ross who brings the printed word to life and also of stars Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper, Jeff Bridges, Elizabeth Banks and, of course, the newest rising star....racing's own GARY STEVENS!

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